DYER BROOK, Maine — The dog treat dough smelled so good, some of the Southern Aroostook Community School after-school program students considered giving it a taste.
“I suggested we save them for the dogs,” said history teacher Shannon Mathers, who heads the after-school program. “Maybe we can make our own treats.”
The Dyer Brook after-school program is one of several Maine Family Resource Center 21st Century sites. The SACS program started with a $2,500 Perloff grant for outdoor classrooms from the Maine Community Foundation, and an ongoing grant from the Family Resource Center of Maine in Danforth helps the program continue.
One of the goals is to engage students in community service, so besides catering to local canines they’ve also launched a literacy project and have plans for the holidays.
The group aims to make the dog treats every two weeks and distribute them to local businesses. The students’ home-baked treats are already in several grocery stores, two banks and the town offices for anyone to take one for their dog.
“The kids made the treats, rolled the dough and cut them with cookie cutters, baked them and they all made tags on the bones that they colored with their names,” Mathers said. “Our plan is to make recipe cards to go with the bones with the next batch in case people want to make them at home for their pets.”
The after-school program includes grades 3 through 12 and the older students mentored the younger students when baking the dog treats, she said.
Despite the grant, it still takes additional fundraising, volunteers and in-kind support to fully operate these programs, according to the Family Resource Center.
Mathers said many local businesses generously support them, often donating materials and time to the program’s community service initiatives.
“The success of the 21st Century After-School Program is built on strong partnerships with local organizations and businesses,” said Superintendent and 6 -12 Principal, Jon Porter. “We work closely with the Katahdin Learning Project, AMHC, SNAP Ed, Frank Cox, Darlings Ice Cream Truck, the Maine Science Museum, and Chewonki to bring unique and enriching experiences to our students.”
Mathers has been with the after-school program for eight years, and when they got their first round of Family Resource Center funding, it was during COVID-19 and they were limited in what they could do.
During a recent professional development program she attended, Family Resource Center organizers talked about a storybook trail, which inspired another after-school project. Mathers thought it would be a perfect complement to the outdoor classroom, she said.
“Southern Aroostook is really a community school and families are encouraged to come over and walk,” Mathers said. “We have trails and a beautiful playground and I thought this would be a good addition.”
With the help of Ralph Vetter, an ed tech at SACS who helped them build the wooden stations, the students built a 12-station storybook trail by the soccer fields that is now open to the community on Saturdays. In learning about recycling, the students repurposed all the plexiglass barriers left from the pandemic as protectors for the storybook pages, Mathers said.
“We will change the stories with the seasons,” she said.
For the first book, “The Merry Month of Birds,” they made the pages larger and placed the text on the vintage illustrations of birds in the story walk stations. The next book, slated for the end of November, is from a learning project. Each station will share information about an animal, a white deer, for example. The story explains what the deer can do and then will ask the children if they can jump as far as a white deer.
Another community service program SACS students are participating in is the Nike Reuse A Shoe program, which collects old sneakers to donate to Nike’s efforts to help the environment.
For the holidays the after-school students are coloring and laminating placemats for the students to deliver to area senior communities for their holiday dinners in Island Falls and Oakfield.
“We’re thinking we might make cookies and some healthy options for treats,” Mathers said.
The hope with the program’s community outreach is that local communities will see the value in after-school programs, she said.
